The present invention relates to an accumulating conveyor chain link and a chain made of a plurality of such individual links.
Conveyor chains made of individual identical links are well known in the art. The following patents describe power transmission chains made up of individual identical links:
______________________________________ Inventor U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Tessier 647,046 Bettin 1,953,388 Morglein 2,142,003 Lanham 3,231,069 Anderson 3,921,792 Blase 5,445,569 ______________________________________
There are also various chain constructions made up of individual identical links which convey articles thereon. Such chains typically include freewheeling rollers. The following patents describe some of these chain constructions:
______________________________________ Inventor U.S. Pat. No. ______________________________________ Weihe 3,237,755 Alexander 3,489,278 Leisener et al. 4,718,543 Clopton 5,467,860 Dag 5,549,194 ______________________________________
In addition, the Lehrieder et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,851 describes a roller chain for use in drawing paper webs through a web-fed rotary printing press. The Szpakowski U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,350 describes a conduit carrier chain made of identical individual links. The Fischer U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,690 describes individual chain links for forming chains that are used in toys. Bourgeois U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,441 describes a compartmentalized conveyor belt system that includes a plurality of spaced roller bearing pins that extend transversely across the belt and are attached to individual link members that are attached to each other.